Military Crisis
by Yao Ren
Summary: Captain Perseus Jackson has just arrived back from an incredibly dangerous mission when he is called away to another without being able to say goodbye to his wife, Annabeth. What of the new addition to his family that he doesn't know about yet. What will Annabeth do about him leaving for this new mission, an international military crisis?
1. Chapter 1

**Alright. So this is my first story. Hopefully I'm not too shabby. Rated T for mild cursing/cussing and sexual activities implied.  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own**

It was a hot, summer day in Florida. Families stand off to the side of the runway. They are waiting. It is easy to tell because they continuously look to the skies. They are expecting something, or rather someone.

Then a plane descends out of the clouds, a military plane, a jet. Many of the families get excited. Some even begin to jump up and down. But not two certain women who happen to look fairly similar, one of which held a very small child. These women squint at the plane as if they know who will come out and resent them terribly.

The plane lands almost directly in front of the families. The families push forward. They are longing for the door to open, to reveal who comes out. Finally the hatch is opened and an officer steps out first. He directed the operation. The most dangerous operation approved and performed by the military since World War II. This man is named Valdez, Leo Valdez. He is only a lieutenant, but through several friends' positions, he had enough contacts to organize and eventually direct the operation. When he descends the steps from the plane, he steps to the side and other men come out. The next man to descend the steps is the admiral who convinced the United States congress and president to approve of the operation. He was the admiral on site in a destroyer. His name is Admiral Zhang, Frank Zhang.

As more and more men descend the steps, more and more families surge forward to greet them. But they are held back by a military unit. Two certain women have not even attempted to greet anyone yet, although they know several men who have stepped out of the plane. These women are standing next to a close friend. Her name is Thalia Grace. Thalia is expecting her cousins and brother to come out of the plane. The women are expecting the Captain and his cousins. His cousins are the same as Thalia's. Another man steps into the doorway. He is Thalia's cousin and a mere sergeant named Nico di Angelo. When he steps into the doorway, there is no way to see another man peeking over his shoulder. Many families realize what this means. This means he has the hand that is not visible on a casket handle. Someone died in the operation. Thalia and the women noticed that the men that already came out were waiting on both sides of the steps.

Nico seemed to be searching for someone. He was scanning the crowd of families being held back, by a military unit, until all the men had exited the aircraft. His eyes landed on Thalia and the women and turned sad. This made the three women inhale sharply. If his eyes were held that emotion, one of their loved ones had died and was in the casket that he held. Nico began to descend the steps. The families knew that whoever would descend holding the back of the casket would determine who was inside the casket. The families all knew that caskets come out of an aircraft last, after all the other men had exited.

The man holding the back half was Captain Perseus "Percy" Jackson. The man in the coffin was Sergeant Jason Grace. The military unit that had been holding the families back let them go forward as Captain Jackson finished descending the last steps out of the plane. Many families immediately ran towards their own friends or husbands or fathers. Sergeant di Angelo and Captain Jackson set the casket gently on the ground as Thalia and the woman without the child approach them.

Thalia arrives first. Captain Jackson and Sergeant di Angelo straighten up and turn to Lieutenant Valdez. Lieutenant Valdez formally gives Captain Jackson an American flag. Captain Jackson then turns and formally gives the flag to Sergeant di Angelo. Sergeant di Angelo then presents the flag to Thalia. Thalia is not crying. She stares down at the flag, now placed in her arms, then down at her brother, Jason's, coffin. Captain Jackson and Sergeant di Angelo both give her a hug of comfort. She is left with only her cousins and father. Admiral Zhang comes over and asks Thalia formally if she would accept a military burial for Jason. Thalia simply nodded her head.

Captain Jackson rests a hand on Thalia's shoulder. She lays a hand over his briefly. When she removes her hand, he removes his. He walks a few feet away from their group. Sergeant di Angelo gets a call on his mobile phone. He walks a few feet away from the group the opposite direction that Captain Jackson went. Sergeant di Angelo answers the call once he had checked the caller ID.

Thalia sank to her knees next to the coffin. Lieutenant Valdez and Admiral Zhang walked towards their own families to give the grievers space. They could tell they weren't needed.

Thalia looked up at the woman who came out and stayed next to her. Thalia said, "I don't get it. I just don't get it. Why couldn't they all survive?"

The woman answered, "Who knows Thalia, who knows?" then she lowered her voice to say, "I guess the fates decided his time was up and gave him a mortal hero's death."

Thalia nodded and stood. She asked, "How do they move the coffin and when and where is the funeral?"

The woman replied, "I don't know. That's something you'd have to ask Percy or Nico. Or even Leo and Frank."

Thalia gave a small grin and said jokingly, "Annabeth admit she doesn't know something? That's a first!"

"Shut up, Thalia!"

* * *

Percy Jackson slowly made his way over to the water without being noticed. The place the plane had landed was a military base on the ocean coast. Percy knelt down and put his hand in the water. He didn't speak. He didn't close his eyes. He just stared out into the distance of the vast Atlantic. About five minutes later, he stood. Nico di Angelo then came running over to him. Flying past the women who had just finished asking their questions to Frank Zhang and Leo Valdez of the funeral arrangements.

Thalia, Annabeth, Leo, and Frank turned to see where Nico was running. When they figured it out, they followed slowly. They could all see Percy's reaction to whatever Nico was telling him. Percy's eyes widened and he and Nico both ran back past the group of four. As they passed them, Percy grabbed Frank's arm and Nico grabbed Leo's. Leo and Frank stumbled along as they attempted to keep pace and balance with Percy and Nico.

Annabeth and Thalia looked at each other then sprinted after the men.

* * *

Percy, Nico, Frank, and Leo could hear Annabeth's and Thalia's noisy footfalls against the pavement of the runway. They knew they had limited time, so they quickly stopped on the side of the plane that the families couldn't see. They figured that both Annabeth and Thalia knew where they went, giving them even less time to speak.

Nico turned to the other men and said, "We got a problem. And when I say problem, I'm not talking just a problem that would concern the just USA government. No, I'm talking about the _Agro II_, this is an _A2_ problem. An international military crisis."

The men were silent for a brief moment. Then Leo said, "Jeez Nico. Dramatic much?"

Nico just glared at him and said, "This is no joking matter. The four of us need to get going now. Like right now."

This time all the men agreed and they ran around the tail end of the plane and boarded the steps to get in. None of them had the opportunity to say goodbye to their families and friends because they knew it could be too dangerous.

The pilot had already exited the plane with the other officers before Nico and Percy had come out with the coffin. Percy knew how to fly a jet and Nico ended up being his copilot. There was only one other officer who knew about international military crisis because he was told immediately after Nico got off the phone. His instructions were simply to keep their families where they were and take care of Jason's funeral arrangements, but postpone the actual funeral until the four men returned. This man was a lieutenant by the name of Solace, William "Will" Solace.

* * *

Little did the men on the plane know, but Thalia and Annabeth had heard their entire conversation. The two women looked at each other when the men had boarded the plane without even a glance back. They quickly checked to make sure no one was eavesdropping on their conversation then turned to each other to figure out what they should do with the information they just heard.

Thalia immediately said to Annabeth, "You go and I'll stay."

"What! Why?"

"Because if it's you that gets caught as a stowaway, Percy will be soft on you," Thalia explained. "Plus if I'm the one who stays, I can watch the funeral preparations and hopefully postpone them until the boys get back. I have to tell Dad about Jason too."

Annabeth sighed, causing Thalia to grin knowing that she had won the argument. Annabeth said, "Alright. I'll go, but you owe me. And keep away prying eyes when I get on!"

Thalia's grin widened. "I will. Good luck Annie!" she shouted as she turned and ran to the families.

Annabeth glared at Thalia retreating figure, then turned and slowly climbed the steps to the plane. She looked inside the plane from the steps. She could see all four men gathered at the front around the cockpit. Two of them were sitting in the pilot and copilot seats, the other two were leaning on the seats from behind. Annabeth could hear them speaking in low voices but she couldn't distinguish what they were saying. She looked to the back and she was able to see places that she could easily hide until it would hopefully be too late to turn back. She sprinted in and hid behind the second seat on the right side. There was only one seat on each side and about ten rows. Not including the cockpit seats, the plane held about twenty people in seats.

Now that Annabeth was inside the plane, where there was no wind or voices to interfere with the noises inside the plane, she would be able to figure out what the men were saying. She could hear no voices though. All she heard was the people in the two pilot seats messing with all the controls.

Then she heard low voices. It sounded like Nico to her, "We gotta hurry up. How long Percy?"

"I know, I know," Percy said that, Annabeth had no doubt about that. He waited a moment then said, "Alright we should be good. Put your headset on Nico. Frank call down to Will over the _A2_ radio. When you're done, you and Leo sit in the front row."

"Yeah alright," Annabeth figured that would most likely be Frank responding to Percy's command.

Annabeth could see Frank's feet as he went over to a window to look out towards the families. She peeked over the seat in front of her to watch what Frank would do. He put a hand to his ear and a small beep could be heard. Then he hit a button on his watch and another beep was heard throughout the small jet.

Frank then began to speak as if Will was right in front of him. He didn't speak into his watch or touch his ear to speak. He said, "Alright Will. Come on up and close the hatch."

Annabeth figured that he was the only one who could hear Will's response, but then all four of the men chuckled simultaneously. She then assumed that only people with some sort of earpiece that Frank had would be able to hear what was said over the wire.

Footsteps could be heard from inside the plane on the metal steps. When Annabeth heard the footsteps, she ducked back behind the seat. Most of the natural sunlight was closed off when Will shut the heard one of the men, probably Nico, say out loud, "Thanks Will."

There was a pause then the men laughed again. The engines could be heard starting up. The jet began vibrating with the engines alive. Annabeth could hear Percy say with a grin in his voice, "Frank, Leo? You guys strapped in?"

Leo put on a falsetto and said, "Yes Captain! We are ready for takeoff!"

All of the men chuckled at Leo's antics. Frank shook his head and said, "Just take off already."

"I'll call in to the tower," Percy said. Then he said, "Tower this is Ghost Rider Oh-nine-zero requesting takeoff."

Half a minute later, the engines lit up and the plane surged forward. Annabeth looked around the side of the seat to see what the men were doing. Frank and Leo seemed to be conversing without looking at each other. Their eyes seemed to be glued to the backs of the pilot seats. Annabeth turned her attention to the cockpit. She could see both Nico and Percy manning the controls with ease.

The jet left the ground. Annabeth didn't know where they were going, how long the journey would be, how many fuel stops they would take, or how long it would take them to figure out she was there as a stowaway. All she knew was she would be alright because she was in the company of excellently trained men, who she would trust with her life.

**Please give any feedback you have in the reviews. I'm very welcome to constructive criticism.**


	2. Chapter 2

At some point along the journey, Annabeth had dozed off on the uncomfortable floor. How she did it must have been a miracle considering her position on the floor. When she woke up, she looked around to get her bearings. When she remembered all that had taken place since the morning, she peeked her head around the side of the seat again. She could see Nico in the copilot seat, but the pilot seat was empty. When she looked at the seats where Leo and Frank had been for takeoff, she saw that those seats were vacant too. She looked back and was met with a high tech workstation.

She thought back to what was on the side of the jet. _A2_. That was the name of the radio system that Will, Percy, Frank, Leo, and Nico were a part of. Now that she thought about it some more, _A2_ might stand for a certain ship that was built for the Giant War. The _Argo II_ was the ship that Leo built. The _A_ would be for _Argo_ and the number _2_ would be replacing the Roman numeral _II_ making _A2_ actually _Argo II_. She felt slight pride come for figuring that code out.

Then she was brought back to the present by turbulence. That reminded her that she was on a jet and jets experience turbulence. The turbulence reminded her of the workstation. She looked back again. Leo, Frank, and Percy were in swivel chairs that were nailed to the floor of the aircraft. They were speaking in low voices. Annabeth assumed they could hear each other over their radio system, _A2_. There were multiple monitors, keyboards, and other controls that Annabeth couldn't identify.

Annabeth briefly wondered how the remaining eight rows of seats had turned into high tech equipment, but the thought passed when another round of turbulence time when the turbulence came, Annabeth slipped out of her space on the floor into the aisle. The _thump_ that she made wasn't loud enough for Nico to hear, but Leo, whose workstation was the closest to where she fell, was able to barely hear it. He turned, startled, towards her. She looked back at him with wide eyes. He ceased speaking. He just sat there, staring at her as if he couldn't quite process her presence on the aircraft.

After a few seconds, Percy and Frank turned to Leo with confused and slightly annoyed looks on their faces. Neither of them fully turned their eyes away from what they were doing, but their bodies were turned slightly. Frank said in a loud voice, "Yo! Leo! Why aren't you answering?"

When Leo still said nothing, both Frank and Percy turned completely towards him. This action gave both of them a view of Annabeth sitting in an uncomfortable position on the floor of the aisle. When they turned Leo finally broke out of his dreamlike state and turned to them. He didn't know what to do or say. Frank just looked at her strangely. She couldn't quite identify what look was present in his eyes.

Percy then stood from his chair and walked over to Annabeth. He knelt in front of her with a questioning look, but she could see slight anger in his sea green eyes. She made eye contact. He said lowly, "What are you doing here?"

Annabeth finally looked down. She didn't have a plan. She didn't know how to answer the simple question that she knew would come once they discovered her.

Annabeth finally answered, "I felt like I needed to come."

Percy dropped the slight questioning look and it was replaced with a disapproving one. He said bluntly, "You shouldn't have come. I also assume that feeling like you needed to come is not the only or real reason you are here."

With that, Percy stood and stepped around her walking to the cockpit. He crawled into the pilot seat and put on a headset. He spoke to Nico in a low voice. At one point Nico turned and looked back at Annabeth who had adjusted herself into a more comfortable position. She was still sitting on the ground, but now she was leaning against the seat she had been hiding behind.

When the Percy and Nico finished conversing, Nico removed his headset and climbed out of the cockpit. He walked over to Annabeth and said, "Get up."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow indignantly. She was not accustomed to being given orders by Nico di Angelo of all people.

"Get up." He repeated. "Listen." He said, "You shouldn't be here. This is a dangerous mortal mission. It doesn't involve you. You aren't in the business involved. It's best if you just ride the rest of the way in a seat and we'll get you on the first flight home once we land. Just stay out of the way." On that note he stood up and went back up to the cockpit.

* * *

For the remaining duration of the flight Annabeth sat in the second seat on the right side. She could tell from Percy's occasional glances over to her that she was only creating more stress by her presence on the aircraft. She did her best to slip under the radar as she just ate the food offered by Frank and sat staring at the seatback in front of her the rest of the time.

Eventually she was able to doze off sitting in a very uncomfortable position. Since there was nothing else for her to do, seeing as she didn't know how to use any of the equipment in the workstation in the back, she fell asleep from boredom. When she was awakened, it was by Leo instead of turbulence. He was shaking her shoulder. When he saw that she was awake he slipped something into her hand. It was her NY Yankees cap! The one that rendered her invisible! She didn't know whether to be thankful that he gave it to her or angry and accusatory for the way he got it in the first place.

He said quietly, "Frank and Percy are piloting and Nico's asleep in the front row, so I figured I'd give this to you. Don't ask how I got it. It turned up in one of my compartments at my workstation so…."

Annabeth nodded. Any annoyance she previously had dissipated with his explanation. She thanked him quietly. She wondered why he was helping her. She was also slightly curious as to what this big mission actually was.

She voiced her questions to Leo. He just shook his head and said, "Can't tell. Just this once, I gotta listen to Percy and Nico over you. Sorry, but in this case they override you. I bet once Perce cools down, he'll explain as much as he can to you."

Again she nodded. Then she asked, "Can you at least tell me where we're going?"

He grinned and said, "Nope. This has to be a surprise."

Annabeth raised her eyebrows, but didn't say anything. She was never one for surprises because, for it to be a surprise, she couldn't know about it, and she hated not knowing. The way he said surprise also didn't make it sound like something bad which made her want to know about it so much more. So, for the remainder of the flight she sat in her seat pondering the possibilities of where they might land.

When they finally did touch down smoothly, she was shocked, to say the least, that none of her guesses had been remotely close. When she looked out the window she saw the unmistakable Chinese flag. They were at the Beijing airport. She began to tap her NY Yankees cap against her leg. It had become a habit whenever she had a hat to tap it against her leg whenever she became nervous. She wasn't so nervous about being in China, but the business that the boys might have in China. What would be so important to have to actually go to China in a jet airplane instead of some sort of video call? With the high tech workstation that was in the back, Annabeth was sure that they could do that.

This meant that the mission involved something that had to be hands on stuff. She assumed it involved some sort of transportation of some kind of goods. All the wondering she was doing was creating even more worry for her. She didn't need to be more worried. She didn't want to be sent back from this airport. For one she didn't know how she would be considering the fact that she didn't have a passport or any other way to use regular mortal airport methods of transportation.

Leo approached her seat again from the back. He came up and said, "Percy is deciding to let Frank take over the taxiing deal and he's coming back to help me pack up the workstation back here. Don't look at him or anything. I know for a fact that he's still upset about you being a stowaway. Sorry that I kinda blew your hiding spot and stuff. I should've reacted faster."

Annabeth gave an understanding smile and said, "Don't worry about it. I'll be fine. I mean, the sooner I got found, the sooner we get the problem solved and move on with whatever business you guys were originally coming here for."

Leo smiled gratefully. No matter how much he had grown and succeeded as an adult, he would probably always have at least a little fear of Annabeth. Then a question came to him. "Hey Annabeth?"

"Yeah?" She answered.

"Who was that woman with the little kid? The one that you were with when we landed back in the states?" Leo asked.

"Oh…. that was actually Athena." Annabeth responded somewhat nervously.

"Athena had a kid!" Leo exclaimed.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow and Leo then corrected himself saying, "A kid that she's raising."

Annabeth quickly said, "Shut up, Leo. It's not her kid. It's mine."

Leo's jaw dropped. "How did you have a kid?" He said quietly, but in a shocked voice.

"Well Leo, if a woman so chooses to reproduce, they first need a sperm to fertilize their-"

"Alright! Alright!" Leo exclaimed having heard enough. "I meant have you been cheating on Percy or what?"

"No I have not been cheating on anyone. He and I conceived the, ah, night before he was called out on the operation. Think about how long he's been gone. It's been more than a year. He is about five months old. He looks like an exact replica of Percy except for the size and certain other qualities…." She trailed off, looking out the window instead of at Leo.

Leo suddenly felt like he was intruding on a somewhat private moment. He stood and said, "Oh. Okay. Well….." He was saved in a way by Percy crawling out of the cockpit to come and help Leo change the back of the plane into rows of seats again.

Leo retreated to the back just as the plane finished taxiing and was parked outside an entrance. Frank crawled out of the cockpit and opened the main hatch. He then proceeded over to Nico and shook him awake. Nico sat up groggily and looked around. Finally his eyes settled on Annabeth. He stood up and stretched his arms over his head then said something to Frank. Annabeth, not knowing what to do, just sat in her seat and unbuckled her seat belt so as to be prepared if she needed to move at a moment's notice.

Nico then said in a loud voice, "Annabeth! C'mon. We're getting out of this cursed thing!"

Annabeth laughed a little at his choice of words as she stood from her seat and went over to Nico. She noticed that Frank had the stairs lined up with the doorway. She stuffed her Yankees cap into her back pocket and took a glance back to where Percy and Leo looked like they were standing in the middle of the aisle at the back. They seemed to be talking, so not wanting to interrupt, Annabeth descended the steps.

Nico was standing by a door that looked like it led into the airport. She went over to him. As she approached, he looked apprehensively back towards the airplane then gestured for Annabeth to hurry. She broke into a run and reached him relatively quick. He pointed inside, but he had dropped his harsh look and it was replaced by a look of understanding. She easily walked inside and took a seat on one of the chairs. Not too long after she had gotten herself situated, the rest of the men came in.

All the men took seats scattered throughout the room. There was surprisingly no one in the room with them. This was completely unexpected seeing as how they were sitting in China's capital, Beijing, and there weren't even staff members around. All the men were looking toward the hallway that led to the rest of the airport. From that hallway, two men seemed to be approaching. When they came closer, Annabeth was able to identify them as Connor and Travis Stoll.

The men with Annabeth all stood when Travis and Connor stepped into the room. Percy approached them and asked, "We all set to leave?"

"Yeah," Travis answered. "Not to be rude or anything, but what's Annabeth doing here?"

"I didn't invite her. Don't worry about it for now. We'll have enough room, so we're fine. Let's get going. We should have at least three safe days before they figure it out." Percy said grimly.

"Yeah, okay," Travis said. "Alright guys. Let's get going." With that, Travis turned and exited out a different door, while Connor went out the door Annabeth and those boys had come from. Percy followed Travis and the other men minus Connor gestured for Annabeth to follow him.

Again delving into the unknown, Annabeth still trusted those around her. If only she knew what was ahead of her.

**Hope you enjoyed.**


	3. Chapter 3

Travis led the group to a sleek black Mercedes Sprinter. It looked intimidating because it wasn't the passenger design on the outside, but when they opened the back doors it was completely decked out. It almost looked as cool as Rachel's Oracle cave. It seemed like it was even more technologically up-to-date than Rachel's cave too.

Nico had to physically poke Annabeth in the back, so she would stop examining and admiring and actually get in. There were plenty places to sit, but Annabeth didn't think any were safe for driving, seeing as none of them actually had a seat belt attached to or nearby it. When all the other boys were seated comfortably with Travis up in the driver's seat, she was still standing looking around.

Finally Frank said lowly, "Annabeth, just sit down. It's perfectly safe. You can admire the interior from a seated standpoint you know."

Annabeth looked around for any seat this time. She sat in the closest one she could find, which happened to be another swivel chair with the bottom nailed to the floor. The van moved forward.

The ride was surprisingly very smooth in the back. When Annabeth had previously ridden in the back of any van, even the passenger ones, the ride was always fairly jostling. This ride was just as smooth as a small car from the front seat. Annabeth wanted to get a lot of these ideas into other useful things, but she figured that could wait until she was back on good terms with all the men around her.

When they stopped, about a half hour later, Travis said, "Hey Perce, this is the hotel right?"

Percy stood from his seat and leaned over the driver and shotgun seats to see out the front window. He nodded and said, "Yep. That's us. I'll go check us in. We've got three rooms reserved?"

"Yeah. Or at least we should have three rooms but you did the reservations so….." That was Nico in a teasing voice.

"Thanks for your confidence in me Nico," Percy said sarcastically.

Nico just grinned. Percy rolled his eyes resembling quite closely Annabeth's look when she rolls her eyes at him. Percy jumped out of the back of the van and went through the front doors into the hotel.

When Percy came back he just leaned out the door and said, "Come on guys. I've got three rooms ready. Same floor and next to each other with one across the hall, so they tell me."

All the men jumped from the truck nimbly. They grabbed bags from where they had been stashed to the side of the doors at the back. They then jumped out of the van and proceeded to the doors. Annabeth stopped by the place they had gotten their bags to find it empty. She wasn't sure if they had anything in terms of women wear, which made her slightly anxious. She jumped out of the van to find Travis and Leo holding the two doors and shut them once she was outside.

She wanted to ask about her own clothing situation, but Leo shook his head slightly. It was not an opportune time to speak. She looked towards where Percy was standing by the elevators. He had three bags, while the rest of the men only had two at the most. At first, Annabeth assumed that, since he was the leader, he was allowed another. However, based on her knowledge of Percy, he was never one to shove leadership privileges in others' faces, in fact he hardly ever used the privilege if he was allowed to.

Annabeth came to the conclusion that the extra bag held whatever provisions they had for her. Her heart warmed at the thought that he was still looking out for her even though he was angry with her for coming. Assuming that she was correct, she wondered how he actually got women's clothing and any _other_ provisions. She didn't know, but she figured she would be able to ask him when he had cooled down. Annabeth might not have been near him at that moment, but she was still able to feel the wafts of anger that were radiating off of him.

The elevator finally arrived. There were four elevators and the one that arrived for them was in the back by the wall on the right side. They all piled in and it was then that Annabeth realized that Connor had not met back up with them. At first that made her slightly nervous, but she figured that she would just add that to the list of things she would ask Percy once he was calm and himself again. Percy pressed the _7_ button and the elevator ascended. Briefly, Annabeth wondered how the room situation would work out, but she just assumed that with three rooms and six people couldn't be that hard. Two people per room would work out just fine and she was sure that the boys could figure that one out by themselves.

Well she found out it was difficult for a couple of them to get it. Travis seemed to just notice the problem and couldn't figure it out, whereas Nico was too indifferent about where he slept to care about sleeping and room arrangements. Then all the boys minus Nico and Percy got into an argument about who would bunk together and which room they would take.

It became a full out shouting match in the elevator until Nico said loudly, "Hey look! It's our floor we should get out now."

Nico's timing was perfect too. Just as he finished speaking, the elevator doors opened on the seventh floor. The entire group went through the hallway and stopped in front of the three doors that were theirs.

Percy said, "Okay. There are six of us right?"

"Right," the group responded quietly.

"We have three rooms right?"

"Right."

"So we have two people per room, and before you start to say anything, I've got ideas on who is going to be with who. I'm thinking Frank and Travis, Leo and Nico, and Me and Annabeth. Sound good? All these rooms have two beds, so don't get all jumpy. Nico and Leo, you guys are in _7708_. Here's your keys," Percy paused to distribute the two room key cards. "Frank and Travis, you're in _7709_ which is the room across the hall from the other two and here's your two keys," again he paused to give the two boys their key cards. Then continued with, "Annabeth, you and me are in _7710_ right here next to Nico and Leo, oh boy!"

As the boys had been assigned rooms and given keys they simply nodded. When Percy was finished, they turned to their rooms and began the struggle of working key cards. Leo got his the first try and he and Nico went into their room with their luggage casting boasting grins over their shoulders. Percy had trouble the first few times and then gave up and gave his card to Annabeth who promptly unlocked the door her first try. When they had all their luggage inside, they looked back to find Travis leaning against the door frame and Frank struggling to make the light turn green so they could go inside. Percy just chuckled and called softly for Frank to let Travis try. Travis didn't get it the first time, but it didn't take him nearly as long as Frank would have taken.

* * *

Once Percy saw that everyone in their group was inside their rooms, he went in his and shut the door. He dropped the three bags he had and checked the mini bar and grabbed one of the beers with the label _TSINGTAO_ out of the fridge. Annabeth didn't recognize the beer name, but apparently Percy did because when he read the label he nodded, opened it and took a swig. Then he came over to where Annabeth was sitting on one of the two beds in the room. He went over to the second bed, relaxing into a horizontal position, placed the beer on the nightstand between the beds, and looked over at Annabeth. He didn't have an angry air to him anymore and his eyes held no negative emotions toward her. All good signs for Annabeth.

Finally he spoke. He took a deep breath and said, "I'm not exactly happy that you're here, but I also know that you're going to win any argument I make against it. I don't like you putting yourself in danger, even if it is in the mortal world."

Annabeth nodded, suddenly finding it hard to meet Percy's eyes. When she finally did, she was comforted by the familiar look in his sea green eyes. The look that seemed to be ever present when she felt lost. The look of compassion, understanding, and above all, love. Deep love towards her. The love that drives him to care for her no matter how much she might mess up. The love that she craves whenever he is not around. The love she values when he is around. The love that she prays he knows she feels towards him.

He offered a small smile. "Hey. It's alright Annabeth. I'm not mad, okay?"

Annabeth returned the smile and nodded. She had tears begin pooling in her eyes, but she was determined not to let them fall. Percy noticed and pulled himself into a sitting position leaning against the headboard.

"C'mere," he said. That was all it took. The dam broke and as Annabeth went over to Percy and sat by him on the bed, she let all the fear and loneliness that she had been feeling ever since he first left over a year ago for the operation. She soaked his shirt with her tears. Thankfully it was not one of his uniform shirts. It was just a t-shirt that said _Capt_. on the front with a small ship emblem beneath it. While she sobbed, Percy just rubbed his hand in circles on her back whispering comforting words in her ear.

When she was finished, she felt like a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She lifted her head off of Percy's shoulder and he just grinned at her. It gave her a warm sense, tingly feeling that spread throughout her body. She felt better and she was at last welcomed back into Percy's loving arms. She was at peace, if only for a little while, and filled with contentment.


	4. Chapter 4

Percy ended up ordering room service for himself and Annabeth, so they wouldn't have to leave their room. They ordered burgers that tasted better than nearly anything they could ever get in the US. They sat on the bed together watching the movie _Real Steel_ with Hugh Jackman on HBO while they ate their burgers. Percy kept his arm around Annabeth the entire time so she would remember that he would always be there for her. Before she fell asleep, Annabeth felt Percy place a kiss on the top of her head. That night was very peaceful for all six of them.

* * *

When Annabeth woke up the next morning, she was alone. Not just in the bed, but in the room. She got frightened. All the events came back to her. She looked around and finally noticed a note on the desk. The desk was in the corner of the room near the window and next to the TV which sat on the short dresser directly in front of the two beds. Annabeth walked over and picked the note up. It read:

_I've gone over to Nico and Leo's room. I need to speak with them. Afterward, I can explain anything you want to know with this business. All 6 of us are going out to breakfast around 0730 so Travis can sleep in._

_- Percy_

When Annabeth finished reading the note, she looked over at the clock sitting on the nightstand between the beds. It read 06:24. She was surprised and slightly impressed that Percy had woken up before seven o' clock. Annabeth decided to jump in the shower.

When she had gotten out of the shower, she came out of the bathroom with only a towel to cover herself. She entered the big room in the same attire. "Well I could get used to seeing this when business is over."

Annabeth turned quickly and relaxed when she saw it was only Percy. Then she blushed remembering her appearance. Percy got off the bed where he had been sitting watching TV and strode over to Annabeth. Wrapping his arms around her shivering body, he pulled her against his broad chest. He smiled and gave her a lingering kiss. Not enough to satisfy her wait of over a year.

"Hey. How long have you been up?" Percy asked.

"Since around six thirty. When did you leave?" Annabeth responded.

Percy chuckled. "I left probably oh-six-ten."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow and said, "Why are you using military terminology when I'm not in the military."

"It's morning so military time is not that different from twelve hour time when you say it out loud. Besides, I think you're smart enough to figure it out without being forced to memorize it." Percy finished with a grin.

Annabeth only shrugged and walked out of his arms. She went to the small bag Percy brought in. She unzipped it and dumped the contents of the bag on the second bed that had hardly been touched. Clothing, accessories, and women supplies were spilled all over the bed. She raised an eyebrow had certain pieces of jewelry that were spilled out, but did not comment. Percy came up behind her to look over her shoulder. He grinned at the same pieces of jewelry that Annabeth had raised an eyebrow to. It was quite comical.

When Annabeth bent over to pick up clothing, her towel slipped off her shoulders. Percy, of course, did nothing to stop it. When the towel fell, he placed his hands on her hips as she attempted to turn around. She was planning on picking up the towel, but Percy decided to interfere.

He kept his hands firm on her hips from behind and kissed her neck. He knew where her weakness was, but he never hit it. She halfheartedly told him that it wasn't the time, but he could tell she didn't really mean it. He continued to kiss her neck and worked his way down as he slowly turned her around. She finally emitted a soft moan of pleasure that made Percy's eyes cloud with lust that she had been longing to see.

They ended up late for breakfast.

* * *

The men had raised eyebrows at Percy and Annabeth coming to the breakfast area together in the manner that they did. They had guessed something came up and they were taking care of it, but the fashion in which they came into the breakfast area said it was because of something else. But what really got them was the look in Percy's eyes. It was light and carefree like the teenage Percy that they had met. Whenever they saw him in the _A2_ business or military, he never had that happy air around him. It was always work. They figured that maybe Annabeth being here wouldn't turn out as bad as they thought it would. She would probably be a slight distraction to Percy, but hey, everyone could use a distraction sometimes. Especially in Percy's case, since he hasn't seen her for more than a year and was always working the hardest of any of the men, including those not present at the time.

Once the awkward air had dispersed, Leo and Travis were able to get the conversation moving again. All six of them went up to the buffet to get something to eat and drink. When they had sat back down at their table, they might as well have been tourists because they never once mentioned anything work related. It was just six friends in a foreign country enjoying breakfast together.

Granted they had moments where everyone in the entire breakfast area turned to look at them. One such moment was when Percy attempted to use chopsticks on his noodles and dumpling. He seemed to be especially talented with them because he ended up getting one of them stuck in between Frank's thumb and index finger which were sitting on the table. It wouldn't have been too bad if Frank hadn't been on the other side of the table on the other end. Percy ate the rest of his meal with a fork and spoon. He didn't want to risk a knife since Leo, Travis, and he were still laughing about the chopstick incident.

When they had finally finished their breakfast because they were full, Annabeth thought that the entire populous in the breakfast area sighed with relief. She laughed silently when she thought about their faces tomorrow when they all come for breakfast again. When her laughter turned not so silent, all the guys looked over at her strangely. They hadn't said anything and she normally isn't the one to think of the funny things in her mind and start laughing before it is said out loud.

Finally Nico asked the question that the others had on their minds, "Uh, Annabeth? What exactly are you laughing about?"

That sobered her up but only slightly. She said with a slight chuckle in her voice, "Don't worry about it, but just out of curiosity, did any of you notice how the employees at that breakfast place reacted when we stood up to leave?"

The guys glanced at each other then collectively shook their heads expecting that she would give an answer.

She didn't. Annabeth just smirked and nodded her head in understanding. Then she walked ahead of the boys to press the elevator button.

When the men thought she was out of hearing range, Travis started by saying, "What was with that question and why do you think she was laughing out of the blue?"

The men all shrugged and Leo said, "It's a girl, Travis. There is no way that we're ever going to be able to understand them. They're just too confusing and make no sense."

Travis chuckled, looked up and down the hallway then said lowly, "Don't let her hear that. She might go all demigod on you."

That made all the guys laugh. Nico said, "Yeah. Watch your back, man."

By the time the guys made it to the elevator, Annabeth had watched the elevators come and go three times as she stood at the end of the hall where the elevators were. Unknown to the guys, she had also heard every word they said. She had even heard the demigod comment that Travis had made. She internally grinned when she thought of what she could do to get back at all of them.

The elevator ride to the third floor wasn't that long, so when they stepped out the boys ran towards the rooms. Annabeth shook her head at their childishness. When she got to the rooms, the guys were having a competition to open their doors the quickest while the other person bunking with them attempted to mess the others up. Percy won because Annabeth wasn't shouting at the other two. As Frank and Nico struggled to focus with Leo and Travis shouting at one another, a man down the hall came out of his room and shouted at them. Leo and Travis stopped their own shouting to listen to him. They quickly figured he was speaking Chinese and Frank and Nico handed the key cards off to Travis and Leo who quickly opened their own doors and retreated into their rooms.

Percy chuckled, waved towards the Chinese man down the hall and said, "Dui bu qi!"

He then retreated just like the others. Annabeth had just strode in when Percy got the door open, so she saw none of the events that happened afterward. She did hear Percy shout something in Mandarin though. She made a mental note to ask him how to say it and what it translated to.

Percy walked into the main room and sat on the same bed he did the day before. The only difference was that he didn't have a beer this time and it was much earlier in the day. Annabeth was sitting at the foot of the bed Percy just flopped on watching television. She turned when Percy made her go slightly airborne with his weight bouncing her end of the bed up in to the air sending her the same way. Percy patted the bed beside him. Annabeth rolled her eyes but crawled over to the head of the head and settled with her head on Percy's chest. He wrapped his right arm around her shoulders.

"I figure you've got some questions?" Percy finally asked, breaking the silence.

Annabeth tried to speak but her voice failed her, so she simply nodded.

"Don't ask any personal questions yet. Only those that have to do with the reason for being here and the _A2_ business."

"Okay." Annabeth managed to get out. "I'm wondering if _A2_ has anything to do with the _Argo II_ from the Giant War?"

"Nicely done, Wise Girl," Percy grinned. "Living up to that nickname, I see," Annabeth smiled and blushed slightly.

Then she said, "So what is _A2_?"

Percy sighed. "It's very complicated," he started, "But I think I still have some down time right now so I can tell you. _A2_ is short for _Argo II_ as you already figured out. It is a sort of business that I run. We use a more modern and advanced model of the _Argo II_ except she looks like a mortal ship from the outside, even if you're immortal. The outside is modeled like a cargo ship. An old freighter that can barely hit twelve knots where in reality it can hit up to eighty if truly necessary. The place where a ship's name would go can be changed in the Command Center. The bridge looks like any other ship's bridge and cannot be changed no matter what. The Command Center is the cool part. It will look like a break room, but when certain people with special remotes type in correct codes into three different locations, it changes into the second control center of the ship, among its other purposes. We've also got more than just the ship in terms of 'transportation' devices. We've got three different jets (one of which we came here in), a helicopter, multiple land vehicles, and other vehicles for the water.

"The entire ship has multiple defenses against both immortal and mortal weapons. And of course she has her own attack system too. Leo had way too much fun designing this, but so far it works and has come in handy. The Command Center operates many of the weapons and the ones that are manual are still connected to the Command Center because they are coded with certain people's palm/finger print and won't work for another unless Command Center interferes. It's a great system. There are many similarities in other vehicles, but I'm not going to explain them since the _A2_ is our main vehicle and basically HQ.

"We've got a huge crew and everyone has their jobs and whatnot. We've got people stationed at other places as well. Certain jobs only have one person holding the position, while others have many. The _A2_ is referred to as our business occasionally. We mainly use ship terms, but if we're talking in a public place, we talk like it is a company or corporation or something along those lines usually. I am the Captain, but when we're in public most will call me Chairman. The highest rank. I'm the big boss and there is no board to override me which means unless someone in the crew can convince me to change my command, what I say goes. Captain and Chairman are the same rank for us, we just use different names. For most we don't actually need to change the names though. Nico, the Stolls, Leo, Frank, and I are the high ranking officers I guess you might say. Jason was too. His death was not just the military's loss, but the _A2_'s as well."

Percy heaved a great sigh before continuing, "The crew is practically made up of mercenaries, but we only accept missions if they will be or mostly be for the benefit of all 'sane' countries involved. Right now, we've been asked to do something for the USA but we're looking into it first. That's one of the reasons we're in China. If we confirm that we are going through with this mission, it starts here. Not in Beijing, but in Xi'an. From there we'll see where else we have to go."

All through the explanation, Annabeth just listened quietly. It sounded like the system was set up quite well and was reliable. However, even though Percy had not talked much about specifics in terms of what they do, she got a sense that it was very dangerous work. She was impressed at the amount of courage that her husband possessed. One might think she would have grasped that fact long ago, but he still surprises her every so often.

Percy looked at her and asked, "That all you wanted to know? At least for now?"

Annabeth smiled and nodded in response.

Percy returned the gesture and looked at the clock on the bedside table that sat between the two beds. He gently sat up, removing Annabeth's head from his chest. Annabeth shot him a questioning look, but he just held up his index finger in a sign that said _just wait_.

Percy left to go to Leo and Nico's room then to Travis and Frank's. He never told her why he was going to their rooms quickly. She soon found out when Percy came back in the room with all four men following him.

Percy winked and said, "We got work to do. Along with all the stuff I told you before I left, _A2_ also has lots of cool gadgets, hand-held and otherwise."

Annabeth raised her eyebrows but said nothing. They men got to work on whatever they needed to do. Annabeth figured that they needed to check in on their mission that they were on at the moment. She guessed they would want to know the motives first and foremost. While she was contemplating, the men had produced many 'gadgets' and other equipment from Percy's second bag and the bag that Leo had brought in without Annabeth noticing. They had a mini high tech workstation. They all got to work and sat somewhere messing with controls or touch screen monitors. It was very impressive when Annabeth thought about what these same men were like when they were teenagers.


	5. Chapter 5

Eventually Annabeth drifted off into a doze as the men worked on. Just when she was about to enter REM, Percy jumped on the bed shaking her awake. When she had regained enough consciousness to hear correctly, she heard shouting about food from all the men except Percy because he was trying to wake Annabeth up.

When he noticed Annabeth flutter her eyes open, he jumped back off the bed and shouted to the rest of the guys, "She's awake! We can go eat a late lunch now!"

The men seemed to be having one of their childish moments because they all cheered and ran for the door. Percy stayed and dragged Annabeth out of bed, following the rest of the men down the hall to the elevators.

They went to lunch at a restaurant that was across the street from the Lido Hotel. Annabeth couldn't remember the specific name of the place, but she did know that the word _Yao_ was in the name. What that meant, she was completely lost. As smart and bilingual as she was, she couldn't read, write, speak, or understand any Chinese languages or dialects. The fact that Percy could irritated her to no end, but she also felt pride that Percy knew what he needed to know for his work.

When it came time for the group of six to order, Percy ended up translating drinks and food to the waitress who apparently only spoke strict Beijing accented Mandarin. Even Percy was barely keeping up. They ended up practically guessing at what they were going to eat for lunch and hoping it wasn't too strange. Granted, according to Percy, some of the strangest sounding or looking things turned out to be the tastiest and sometimes healthiest.

* * *

When they finished lunch, left and paid for their meal, Percy and the other men retreated into Nico and Leo's room. Percy told Annabeth to go and stay in their room. His voice had an urgent tonality to it. Annabeth went to their room, but without Percy noticing, slipped into Nico and Leo's room just before the door shut. As the bathroom was close to the initial entry, Annabeth ran into it. She thought she might've been too loud, but when no one came she relaxed slightly.

She was able to hear the men speaking. All their voices sounded rushed and slightly panicked.

"It's too early! We won't be ready in time - "

"I know. I got that part, but we have no other option. We can't control time, sadly. We'll have to make it work - "

"But it's impossible - !"

"With everything that we've done in _both_ worlds, I think we can figure out a way."

"Yeah. Definitely. We can do this if we stop panicking and use our heads to figure this out."

There were so many voices talking over each other. Annabeth could hardly decipher whose was whose. She could tell the first voice she heard was indefinitely Leo's. The one that reminded them they were _demigods_ was Percy's without a doubt. Annabeth was fairly sure that the voice that agreed with Percy was probably Nico, but the other ones she couldn't be sure of. When they started speaking again, they sounded much more controlled and professional.

"Alright," Percy started, then Nico immediately jumped in to speak.

"First, we have to confirm our time limit. We might have to make a couple calls. Travis?"

"Yeah. We might also have to speak with some people in the government." Travis said.

Annabeth risked peeking her head around the doorway of the bathroom into the big room, keeping it close to the ground. All the men were gathered around a piece of equipment that had holograms floating around on it. However, none of the men were paying any attention to the holograms or the computer-like object they were being projected from. No. All the men were focused on different points out the window or each other. They all seemed to be attempting to find a solution to whatever extra problem they seem to be having. She slipped her NY Yankees cap on and walked closer to the men.

"Look. If we do have to make a plan, maybe we should first get someone who's actually good at strategizing," Leo suggested.

With that suggestion, all the men turned to Percy. Annabeth saw him raise an eyebrow to show he was confused.

Then Percy responded, "If you're implying that we call Malcolm into this after what happened last time we took him to the field….." he trailed off.

The men other than Percy looked at each other then Frank said slowly, "Not quite. We were more saying that maybe we should involve Annabeth - "

Before Frank finished saying the last syllables of Annabeth's name, Percy had stood and said, "Not a chance. She isn't here because she was supposed to be. I don't want to put her in any more danger than I already have by allowing her to stay on the jet. We should have turned around right then and there. Taken her back. No. I don't want her in the field with a matter she is unfamiliar with."

Nico said, "She wouldn't want you to be protective over her. She would want to go into the field and it's not a bad idea. She could get us all out of this sticky spot."

Percy was listening, but shaking his head. "Nico. I know that she might not want to be protected, but that's who I am. I'm protective of my wife! Is that so bad?" His voice was rising with every sentence.

"Of course not!" Nico was shouting now. "It's not bad, but in times like this, you can get overprotective! Maybe she was meant to be a stowaway on that jet so she could help us. Maybe _someone_ influenced you not to turn the jet around and drop her back off in the USA! We don't know!" He took a deep breath and lowered his voice again saying, "What we do know is that we need a strategist and that is her home turf."

Percy turned and with a resigned sigh asked, "How much did you hear, Annabeth?"

Annabeth was shocked. She was invisible! How did he know she was standing there, or even in the room?

Percy said, "I know you're in here. Where are you?"

Annabeth was nearly directly in front of him. She was only off to his right slightly when he was turned around. She took off her Yankees cap and shimmered into existence. Percy nodded like he suspected it all along, while the other guys stared for a few seconds then turned back to Percy who had sat back down, leaning back in his seat. He scooted the chair back as if to welcome Annabeth into the semicircle they had made around the hologram generating computer. That was not to be the case. Percy adjusted himself in his seat, then gently pulled Annabeth into his lap. She leaned into him, enjoying the moment where she was in the arms of the Percy she was used to. Not the business one, the carefree, easygoing one that lived life on the edge. Even if she found the business one very attractive.

Percy began the conversation again by saying, "You up for the job, Annabeth?"

She didn't even hesitate. "Yes."

Nico grinned and said, "Sure as shootin'. How much did you hear?"

"I'm fairly sure I heard everything since you guys came in."

"That'd make sense," Percy agreed. "She would've slipped through the door with the cap and we didn't start talking until the door was closed, so it makes sense that she heard everything we said in here."

Annabeth was again surprised at how intelligent Percy could be when it was required. Leo said, "We should probably fill her in on the things from whenever it all started. She'd need all the information if she's gonna help us right?"

The others nodded, but Percy's arms had stiffened slightly around her waist. He said tightly, "We can do it tomorrow or I can tonight. Either way, I don't want to now."

The men all looked at him questioningly. Annabeth even looked up at him. He just shook his head subtly. Then there was a knock at the door. All the men jumped up. Percy rushed Annabeth to the bathroom. She saw the men taking beers and chips out. Leo was shutting the computer down and Nico was getting up calmly.

Percy gently pushed Annabeth into the shower behind the curtain, pushed her Yankees cap onto her head, and said lowly, "Don't come out until I say the keyword. It has to be me saying it too. The word is," and he put his lips to her ear and spoke softer than ever, "hamslice." He gave her a lingering kiss then ran out of the bathroom.

When Nico opened the door he acted slightly tipsy. The other men in the room had beers all over, dug bottles out of the trash to spread around the room. They did put a couple near the trashcan so it would look like they had tried to throw it in. The chip bags were all opened and the television was on. The volume was blaring from it as the men shouted and joked around like they had been doing that since they came back from lunch. Travis was actually lying on the floor between the beds at an odd angle.

The man who Nico had opened the door to looked American. He was caucasian and had the style and air of a wealthier American. An air that was far too arrogant for any of the others in the room. When the man who had knocked on the door stepped in and saw this scene he turned to Nico who was acting the most sober and asked in English, "Who are all of you?"

Nico replied in Italian, "What?"

The man raised his eyebrows. He repeated, "Who are all of you? I don't speak Italian!"

Nico looked to the other men who were paying them no mind. He said in Latin this time, "I can't understand. Do you understand Latin?"

The man was getting frustrated. He nearly shouted, "No! I don't even know what language that was!"

Nico put on a confused face. His left eyelid was also drooping. He stumbled into the big room with the other men and closed the door. The walls and doors are soundproof which was why they got away with the sudden loud volumes. Nico shouted to the men in Greek, "Do you understand what this fool is asking. He doesn't speak Greek, Latin, or Italian. I'm getting offended!"

The men looked at each other then Frank responded in the same tongue, "What has he been speaking?"

"English."

Again the men cast glances at each other. Leo said in Spanish, "Does he speak Spanish? English is the only English word I know."

They all looked at the man. Frustrated, he said, "I don't speak that language either! I am white! I am from America and I speak English! Do any of you understand that?"

Percy tried French saying, "Cool it! We're trying here! We want to understand you just as much as you want to understand us!"

The man clearly didn't understand French because he shouted again, "Damnit! How do you not know English? That man passed out looks American! Wake him up maybe I can speak with him!"

Little did Annabeth know, the men had changed their looks to look more like their ancestral heritage, but could change how far back that would go. Travis was the only one who didn't. Percy changed to look Greek, Nico looked Italian, Frank looked Asian, and Leo looked Spanish (as in from Spain). It was an ability inherited from the combination of mortal and god. The godly side gave the ability and all the roots where the fire of the West was once the strongest. The mortal side gave their own family heritage. Complexion, eye and hair color were normally the only things that might have to be changed. They stayed in their clothing though.

Percy changed to Vietnamese and said, "Do you know any other languages?"

The man threw his hands into the air in exasperation. "If you think I know that language, you're wrong! Does the man on the floor know English?"

The men looked at each other with questioning stares, but just for a second, Percy allowed his eyes to show how much amusement he was having with the repetitive conversation.

Leo said in Cantonese, "Just get rid of him, Perce."

Percy nodded and turned to the man. He said in French, "Give us a phone number to call when our friend here wakes up." He pointed to Travis. Then he gave the man the pad of paper and pen the hotel room came with. When the man looked at him confusedly he put his fist to the side of his face with his thumb sticking out by his ear and pinky out by his mouth.

The man understood and wrote a phone number down. Then wrote at the bottom in Latin, _I can read and write Latin. When your friend wakes up and gets oriented, call this number ^ and I can explain my reasons for being here._

When Percy read the note he said to Nico in Latin, "This guy can read and write Latin, but he can't speak it!" All the men had a good laugh while the man who just finished writing looked on, confused. Then Percy turned to him and wrote in English, _YES_. It seemed like he struggled when he was writing. The man first thought he wrote in all capital letters for emphasis, then he thought of the struggle he had to write those three letters and figured that capital letters were the only ones he knew how to write.

The man nodded and left. When he was leaving, Nico left the door open until the heard the elevator's pleasant _ding_. Then he waited about five more seconds before closing the door again. The men all changed into their _birth form_ as it is commonly know. Travis stood up off the floor and helped the others clean up. Percy walked into the bathroom and, without opening the shower curtain, said, "Hamslice."

The curtain opened and out stepped Annabeth lowering her Yankees cap. Percy gave her a hug then they walked back out into the main room.


	6. Chapter 6

**Updates will start to slow down. Summer plans will start making my schedule crazy, but I'm far from finished.**

When they had gotten the room cleaned up, all the guys sat down in various places and just started laughing. Annabeth, who had been inside the shower the entire time, didn't understand the 'joke' so she asked.

When Annabeth asked why all the men were laughing so much, they broke into another round of laughter. Not that she wasn't grateful they were laughing and not too serious all the time, she just didn't appreciate being out of the loop even if it was for her safety.

Finally Nico was able to regain some sense of soberness. He said still chuckling, "It's just the guy's - " He had to take a deep breath to continue, "The guy's face was hysterical. Plus he kept getting so upset that we didn't speak English and spoke all these other languages."

Annabeth couldn't seem to find this funny at all, but apparently it was to the men, so she allowed them to calm down on their own. She enjoyed seeing them act like their teenage selves again. They always seemed to be very serious and never would do their old joking around. It was good and bad. It seemed like that would be good for the _A2_ business, but it looked almost depressing from Annabeth's view from afar. Then again, she hadn't seen Percy or the other men for over a year (a year and two months to be specific). She wondered if they were this serious and down to business because of the _A2_ business or because they were all ranking officers in the military. Something to ask Percy.

It took long enough for all the men to calm down in Annabeth's opinion. She still didn't find a man's response to miscommunication this funny, but she kept her opinions to herself. As all the men were finally calmed down, she waited for one to give some sort of instruction for further actions to take.

Annabeth then decided to ask, "What are we going to do now?"

It was Leo to answer with, "Well I think Travis should call this guy back because he was the guy that we hinted to the guy that can speak English. He was playing passed out when that guy was here."

"Is it wise to call the man back?" Annabeth questioned.

All the men nodded at the time. Annabeth sent a questioning look to Percy. It turned out to be Nico to answer, "If we don't, he and his superiors will get suspicious and he would probably get in trouble for being the one that was supposed to pass some sort of message to us."

"Why do we care if he gets in trouble if he is working for a superior who is working against us?" Annabeth asked.

"That's not our main reason or motive for calling them back," Percy replied quietly.

Annabeth finally nodded in acceptance. Several of the men sighed with relief making her raise an eyebrow. She looked to Percy again, but he just winked slyly.

Frank said, "I bet they found out what room we're in and all that after we went to that hotel across the street. Then they probably have someone inside working in this hotel that checked the records for one of our names and that's how they found the room. I bet it was just a lucky guess they chose this one. Thankfully the rooms are under Travis's name."

"Yeah," Nico repeated. "We're lucky that Travis remembered to be the only English speaking one when the guy came to the door."

Travis just nodded, but Annabeth had a feeling it was sheer luck that made him make the decision to be the unconscious one that would be the only one to act American and able to speak English. Whatever type of luck gave him that stroke of genius, Annabeth figured the group would need quite a bit more of it. Hopefully it would come consistently, then they could hopefully make necessary changes to plans to attempt to match up. However, Annabeth didn't think that any luck that the group receives will be consistent to anything. It would be because they accidentally pleased one of the Olympians the day before or some other reason that would never be repeated.

Figuring these thoughts would be considered depressing, Annabeth attempted to break out of them. When she actually tuned into the conversation the men were having, she had missed vital information that would assist in her job. That reminded her that she still didn't have a set job or even all the information about this mission. She barely knew what they had just found out after lunch when she was eavesdropping.

Percy had promised to explain what he knew that night, but now with the man coming to the door, Travis and Nico seem to be the most fidgety. They don't like it. They want to try to organize the new information they were getting. Ideas and plans were coming together and yet they still seemed panicked.

Annabeth didn't know what actions were going to be taken from that point on. In her mind, the first thing would be to not go out in public as much unless it is absolutely necessary. She decided this in her mind, then remembered that if any of her ideas are going to be useful, the rest of the men had to hear about it. They would probably end up discussing it, debating it, or attempting to veto it, but she was confident it would go through. Especially if Percy had his head on right when she proposes it.

"Um, guys?" Annabeth started, "I tuned out a bit, but I think one of the first things to do would not be seen in the public eye unless it is absolutely, positively, necessary. If we are right about the guy who came to the door and his superiors finding us by tracking from when they found us. I think we have to be a lot less casual."

In the silence that followed, one could've heard a pin drop. The men looked at each other as if comprehending what Annabeth had suggested. Slowly, Percy began to nod closely followed by Frank. Then Leo decided to shake his head. The men all looked at him as if wondering what he could possibly see wrong with this idea.

"I just think it will make us appear too secretive in the hotel staff's eyes. If we're right about that guys' superiors having people working for him inside the hotel, they might contact them and say that we're doing something suspicious. That would draw attention." Leo said anxiously.

Percy cast his eyes down then, without looking up, said, "I see you're point there. I'm just wondering how they would have gotten people working here before we came so they could be high ranking enough to get them into certain places. It doesn't quite make sense to me. I think what we should do is check into different hotels than our reservations are in. That way they'll be thrown off. They might have someone inside _A2_, who knows? I just hope not. Because if they do, that will make a mark on my conscience. We'll put the remainder of Annabeth's plan into action once we've left Beijing. If we do it here, Leo has a good point about people getting suspicious."

The other men nodded in assent. Annabeth gave it some thought then, with a great sigh, nodded in agreement.

Leo then said randomly, "We should give that guy who came to our door a name, at least until we've found out his real name."

The men save Nico chuckled. Nico just looked at Leo strangely. Annabeth couldn't quite identify what the look was supposed to say. Frank then said, "Mark."

"No."

"Not happening."

"Don't care."

"C'mon! Be more inventive!"

Annabeth didn't say anything. She didn't understand the point of giving someone a random name when they were sure to find out a name for him shortly. But because she hadn't said this opinion out loud, the men sat sprawled around the room throwing name around. It was like naming their first child except with five people suggesting and vetoing names. The process took about a half hour before they decided on Jim. They didn't want to try to think of last names considering most of those are insanely strange. Annabeth thought that the first name wasn't worth the effort it took, but the men would hear none of that. They had definitely retained their stubbornness from teen years.

"Now that you have a name picked out - " Annabeth began.

Leo interrupted, "I still don't agree - "

"You were outvoted."

"Yeah. Get over it, Leo."

"Besides, you'll all learn his actual name when Travis calls him later," Annabeth said, jumping back and taking over the course of the conversation again. "What exactly are we supposed to do?"

The men looked at each other. They looked like they were almost having a telepathic conversation, because their facial expressions changed in sync. If Annabeth wasn't so anxious at the moment, she would have found the entire interaction quite amusing. However, she was anxious and the interaction did nothing but increase the anxiety.

Then Nico said, "Percy will explain everything. Even the parts you tuned out."

Annabeth's cheeks colored, but she said nothing and that was the only tell of slight embarrassment. Percy wrapped an arm around her waist as he said with enthusiasm, "We're all going to order room service in this room!"

All of their faces brightened at this suggestion. They were especially fond of certain ideas that came out of Percy's mouth every so often. This one happened to be one of those certain ideas.

Percy was ordering the room service for everyone because they had just written their orders down on the next sheet of paper on the notepad. They tore off the first one that 'Jim' had conversed with Percy. They put that one next to Travis's cell phone, so he wouldn't forget to call him. Leo pulled Annabeth aside as the others attempted to read each others hand writing while Percy repeated what they said in Mandarin to whoever one orders room service to.

Leo started, "Did you tell him?"

Annabeth looked at him blankly showing him that she had no clue what he was talking about. He elaborated in a low voice, "About the baby?"

Annabeth took on a surprised look. "Who? Percy?"

"Yeah! Who else should you tell about your kid you had together?"

"Look Leo. I get that it's important, but I don't want to distract - "

"Isn't this reason an okay distraction?" Leo interrupted getting slightly heated.

"Shhhh!" Annabeth said frantically. "I don't want any of them," she pointed at the men struggling with ordering their dinner still, "to know about this alright?"

"Why not? It's kinda important." Leo said. The tone of his voice was still aggravated, but he lowered his volume, thankfully.

Annabeth gave a small sigh. "Yes. It is, Leo. I just don't want this to distract Percy. He needs to do this mission. The _A2_ business needs him focused. Our child can wait for another few months. He's only five months old. He won't remember that his father was gone for a mission."

"But he should have a father and mother there for him because he's a baby that needs parental care from someone other than his goddess of a grandmother." Leo said. His voice took on a sad tone as well. Annabeth could tell he was used to not having a mother around, but she knew his orphan experience was when he was much older making it affect his life a bit more.

Annabeth said, "Leo, it'll be alright."

Leo nodded then said, "But you can't just drop a baby bomb on Perce once you guys get back home and Athena is back to greet you again with a kid in her arms. A kid that looked like an exact replica of Percy, except for curly hair. Not to mention shorter cut than Percy's personal standard, but that's not the point!"

"I know Leo. I know it'll be difficult. I'll figure something out."

"No, Annabeth! You've gotta tell him before things on this trip get out of hand. Before you go back to the states. You've gotta tell him before any other action takes place, just so he knows. He can't…."

"Can't what, Leo?" Annabeth's look told Leo that she had a gut feeling about what he had been ready to say, but he didn't want to have to say it to her.

"Never mind. You just gotta tell him. He's gotta know."

"Leo…." Annabeth said warningly. "What were you about to say?"

"Doesn't matter!" Leo said, trying fruitlessly to get himself out of the situation that he got himself in.

Annabeth's voice was dangerously low and calm, "Leo, what were you about to say?"

Leo hesitated then said quietly, "He can't go to his grave without knowing he has a new addition to his family! There. I said it. You wanted to hear what I was about to say. I said it!"

Annabeth asked, "This is a potentially fatal mission after all?"

Leo nodded and said, "Look, I don't think he deserves to have this hidden from him. Either you tell him, or I will. You've got until tomorrow afternoon, say, three o' clock."


	7. Chapter 7

**Trying to get as many chapters finished and revised before I start going to camps and all that. Camps + vacation is gonna end up taking a lot of my time which will slow updates slightly. ****Hopefully not that much.**

As the room service cart came, Annabeth just sat on one of the beds while Percy attempted to distribute food quickly. She was thinking about her conversation with Leo and his almost ultimatum. She didn't like to say it, but it made her nervous. She wanted to be the one to tell Percy about their child, but she didn't want to do it so soon. Now she had no choice. Now she had to make yet another plan. But this one was how to break news to her husband. News that she had kept hidden all the time while they had been reunited.

Annabeth first figured that she should break it to Percy that night, before he started explaining all the other business things that she had failed to pick up. She thought that it would be the best time for them to be alone and have plenty of time to talk. But she then thought that if she did then, he wouldn't tell her what she needed to know for the _A2_ business and try to send her home again. If she knew anything about Perseus, he would want her to go home and take care of the child that he couldn't be with. Then he would be distracted through the rest of the mission which could be fatal for him or the other men.

Annabeth resolved to tell him in the morning after he explained what she needed to know as their field strategist. That way she could have some leverage over Percy to keep her with them. She was convinced that Athena could and would take care of her child even if he was half Percy. Annabeth fully trusted that her mother would care for her own grandchild no matter what his genes were. Annabeth also had a sneaking suspicion that he would turn out to not only greatly resemble Percy, but also act more like him than Annabeth. Back to the resolution, Annabeth figured that if she could come up with a good starting set of actions that night, Percy would be easier to convince to let her stay. She thought that if she had some sort of beginning plan that was excellent, he would be pressured by the other men to keep her for her strategical input.

She was knocked out of her thoughts by an annoying, "Earth to Annabeth!"

Annabeth looked up from her spot on the bed. Nico was the one who had spoken as Percy was attempting to place all the unnecessary items back on the cart that the maid had brought the food on. The rest of the men excluding Nico were trying to direct him, but they kept contradicting each other. It didn't make very clear commands and by the time he thought that he had all the correct utensils, dishes and trays on the cart and dismissed the maid (who never looked so happy to be dismissed) ten minutes had passed since the initial knock on the door. Annabeth shot the maid an apologetic look as she was leaving. She felt slight sympathy for the maid and wondered why Percy didn't give her a huge tip for having to deal with the craziness of their group.

When Percy brought her food to her, she asked. "Hey Percy?"

"Yeah?"

Leo glanced over at her apprehensively. Annabeth quickly looked at Percy, who was eating his food and didn't glance up once, then shook her head slightly at Leo.

Percy then looked up and said, "What's on your mind?"

_Lots of stuff_ Annabeth thought, but she didn't say it out loud. Instead she asked her question, "Why didn't you tip the poor maid for having to deal with this group's…insanity?"

"Oh!" Percy said in realization. He nodded as he said, "Yeah. Here in China, because of their government, you don't tip waitresses, maids, or any other people like that. It's their culture and all. But I did give her a huge 'thank you' and an apology for our insanity, as you put it."

Annabeth raised her eyebrows and said, "Oh okay. I thought you had forgotten."

"Annabeth, I don't forget everything! Just certain important things." Percy said jokingly.

Annabeth smiled, but wasn't quite in the joking mood. Percy seemed to be able to tell because he glanced at her worriedly. She tried for a reassuring smile, but had a feeling that it looked more like a grimace to him. The look she received from him was one that said, _we are talking about this later_.

Percy engaged in the guy's conversation again, but still every so often cast glances at Annabeth that were unreadable to her. She had a small appetite as well, which she presumed only added to Percy's growing concerns over her. He was too protective sometimes, but she loved it. She just hoped that if they ever had a girl, the boyfriend was a good one because she might have to get a body bag if he wasn't and it wouldn't be for their daughter. The thought made her smirk when Percy happened to be glancing over. It lightened his mood considerably along with increasing her appetite to its standard level.

The remainder of the evening in Leo and Nico's room was lively and enjoyable for all present. However, when Percy and Annabeth were leaving to go to their room, dread settled on Annabeth once again. Even though she had resolved when to tell Percy about their child, she was still not completely set on it. That made her anxious and unfocused on what she should be focused on.

When Percy and Annabeth went into their room, Percy flopped down on the bed on his back. He lifted his head and looked at Annabeth standing at the foot of the bed watching him. He slid into a sitting position and patted the bed next to him. Annabeth slipped her shoes off before going over to sit by him.

"What'd you tune out?" Percy asked.

"I wouldn't know. I was tuned out." Annabeth replied jokingly.

Percy sighed and gave a small chuckle. "I know Wise Girl, I got that much."

"Did you now?"

"Yep! But anyway, I don't know how much of _A2_ business is necessary for you to know to be our field strategist for this mission. For one, you should know that you will never be out in the field for us after this mission."

"Why is that, Percy?" Annabeth asked. She had a feeling it was protectiveness taking over when he had said that. It wasn't exactly irrational though. Annabeth guessed that several of the _A2_ missions that required a field strategist were potentially fatal missions. Who would the fatality be? She didn't know. It could be the strategist to get rid of any clever strategy, the leader to cripple the others, the missions could be fatal to anyone going on them. It just depended on their enemy's own strategy. What their enemy thought would cripple the team. Whatever would weaken them the most.

Percy took awhile to answer and when he did his eyes still held a faraway look to them. He said, "I guess I'm just feeling protective of my wife. Is that so bad?"

Annabeth smiled and said, "Not at all. But sometimes you need a strategist anyway."

Percy's grin could be heard when he answered, "You'll never let me win this argument, will you?"

"Nope."

"Alright. I can live with that."

"Good. So are you going to explain what I need to know about this mission?" Annabeth asked bringing the conversation back on the track she wanted it to be on. Or at least she attempted to.

"Oh. I don't know. This conversation is so much lighter and easier to work with." Percy said.

Annabeth rolled her eyes and turned on her side so she was facing Percy. She leaned on her elbow with her head on her hand so she would be eye level with Percy's head resting on two pillows. Pillows stuffed with buckwheat might she add.

Percy turned his head so he was looking directly into Annabeth's eyes. He raised his eyebrows, wondering why Annabeth had shifted her position. The motive for her was to make sure she could see what was going on in Percy's mind through his sea green eyes. She also wanted to be able to tell if Percy was lying or withholding something as he explained the vital information. She thought it was quite clever, especially since Percy hadn't figured out her reasoning.

Percy never caught on. He just began explaining, "I've told you about the basics of the business. This situation is not for the USA per say. It's an international crisis that pertains to at least one country on all the continents except Antarctica. We're trying to intervene without being obvious about it. At least, that was what we were asked to do. We do know who is been suspected to be behind this entire crisis, but we haven't confirmed it. That's our first step like I already told you. We have to look into what we've been asked to do. The _A2_ business has been asked to rid of him and his closest followers in all supporting countries. We're attempting to find if that is the answer that will save this impending war from ever happening. Currently, it is more of a threat and only slight military force has been used. The USA is barely involved in terms of military force, but several other countries have been going at it in other seas and oceans other than the Pacific and Atlantic. The USA is attempting to hide all this from the civilians as long as possible."

Percy paused. Annabeth slowly nodded showing she understood what he had said up to that point. Percy continued, "We are short on time because of certain things we are trying to find. They are different objects that will give us more insight on this problem, however their locations are being shifted much sooner than planned. They are kept by other people in the _A2_ who are currently under threat of being driven out. We have to get to all of them first by getting past all other defenses of other people. There are not clear sides in this crisis either, making this even more complicated. We don't know who is with who overall. We just dispose of those standing in our way from our own people at this stage."

Annabeth sat in silence as she comprehended all that Percy had told her. She wanted to come up with a starting plan. A first action to suggest to Percy for their group to do. An action that would assist in this crisis being finished before it was really started. A movement that would stop this military crisis from ever becoming a public world war. Unfortunately Annabeth was too distracted to properly come up with an idea to help what they were dealing with. Then she remembered that Percy had said they were short on time. That was also why they were panicking about a field strategist. She needed to know specifically why they were short on time.

"Percy?" Annabeth started, "Why exactly are you short on time? What is pressuring the time limit?"

"Good question. There is a reason for you now being our field strategist. The answer is that our people spread out are under threat of being driven out right? So because of that, our general arrangements have been screwed up. At this point, we are trying to continue with our original plans for where we need to meet up for certain handoffs. Those handoffs, I'm afraid will have to stay between the closest members of the business. You are still a slight liability. I am telling you exactly what you need to know within my allowance. I can't tell you too much just in case you are captured. I don't want them to have a reason to torture you for answers. I don't know who they are, but if it's clear you know something important, they will stop at nothing to get it out of you."

Annabeth said, "That's sensible. That will protect the business and me. It makes sense."

Percy nodded and turned on his side. He brushed a piece of hair behind Annabeth's ear. He was looking down into her eyes. His eyes swept down her body quickly, then came back to meet her own eyes. Annabeth smirked. She got out of bed and changed into sweat pants and one of the few T-shirts that Percy had on the trip. She came back into the room to find Percy in the same place but in just in boxers and on his back under the covers. Annabeth crawled into bed next to him and turned out the bedside light.

**A/N: Feedback is appreciated.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Back from my first camp. Got chapter 8 out. Doing well.**

The next morning, Annabeth woke up cuddling with Percy. His arm was wrapped around her waist. She turned in his arms to look at his peaceful face. Annabeth liked watching how his expression was always relaxed and peaceful looking when he was asleep. Free of all the stress that he had now as an adult in the military and running the _A2_ business. She had a feeling that Percy could use more of a rest than he allowed himself. She put that on a mental list of hers. She planned to tell him to give himself more time to rest and relax. She wanted him home more often anyways.

That reminded her. Annabeth had to tell Percy about their child by three o'clock or Leo would. As much as Annabeth would've preferred for Percy to hear about him much later, she had no choice. Annabeth did not want Leo to be the one to tell Percy about the child Percy and Annabeth had together.

Percy stirred. His eyes fluttered open and he gave Annabeth a sleepy smile. She gave him one back. He shifted and sat up. He bent over, gave Annabeth a light kiss, then jumped out of bed and went to the bathroom. Annabeth slumped down in the bed once he had shut the door. The weight of the thought of having to tell Percy about their child was almost painful for her. But she knew she had to do it.

When Percy came out of the bathroom he had jeans on and no shirt. He came over and sat by Annabeth again. He studied her face for a second then asked, "What's on your mind?"

Annabeth looked over at him in surprise. He shrugged and said, "You look troubled."

"Yeah. I guess I am. Listen, I need to tell you something important." Annabeth said, her heartbeat increasing.

"Alright." Percy said easily. He leaned back against the headboard.

Annabeth took a deep breath and started. "Do you remember the woman with me when the jet landed?"

Percy frowned. He seemed to be thinking back to that time. Finally he replied, "Yeah, I think so. The one with a kid?"

Annabeth sighed. That seemed to be what made her memorable to any bystander - the child that she had been holding. But nonetheless, Annabeth replied, "Yes. That's the one! Do you remember any features or anything about her?"

Again, Percy seemed to have to really think about it. Then he slowly nodded and said, "She was glaring at the jet the entire time and she had blonde hair."

Annabeth nodded and said, "Yes. That's true. That was my mother." Annabeth paused for Percy to comprehend what she had just said.

"What?" Percy nearly shouted.

"That was my mother Athena."

"I know who your mother is. Why did she have a kid? Why was she there? What did the jet do to piss her off?" Percy fired off questions. Briefly Annabeth was reminded of Rachel's style of questioning. It was very similar to what Percy had just demonstrated.

"She was there to be with me and I believe she wanted to speak with you, but you took off too quickly. The jet didn't do anything to anger her, I have reasons to think that it was certain people in the jet that she was glaring at," Annabeth explained.

Annabeth knew she was skirting around the important question. She was still nervous about Percy's reaction to the fact that they had a child. She was anticipating anger for sure. She wasn't sure what else might come with it though. She therefore wanted to avoid having to say it outright as long as she could. She didn't exactly have that much time because Percy was more perceptive now.

"Okay. Why do you think that certain people in the jet 'angered' Athena? Or I should ask which people in the jet was she angry at?"

"You for sure. She might have something against other people in there as well, but I know you were definitely one of them."

Percy sighed and said, "Of course. I expected that. So what did I do that Athena is upset at me again. And what about the kid she had?"

There he goes with his rapid fire questions again. That was something that Annabeth didn't particularly want him to pick up from Rachel. If it had been painting or something, that would have been nice and helpful. But the rapid fire questions? Really?

"The child was a child. What's to question about him?"

"He didn't have blonde hair, so is it Athena's with a weird genetic code or what? I mean the hair was curly, so that could've been the Athena genes I guess."

"No. The child is not Athena's."

Percy waited expecting Annabeth to continue with the explanation, but she was too nervous to. Her heartbeat felt like it was beating at twice its normal speed. Percy seemed to be able to sense this. He lowered himself down to her level, wrapped an arm around her waist and squeezed lightly.

"Whose child is it?" Percy asked quietly and gently. He gave the sense of patience. He wasn't rushing her to tell him. He was willing to wait for her to compose herself so she was ready herself to speak again.

Finally she said in a shaking voice, "Athena was mad because you impregnated me the night before you got the call and had to leave for that huge military mission that Leo called you out on. That child is ours."

Percy reaction was far from what Annabeth had predicted. He raised his eyebrows and said, "Oh."

Annabeth asked hesitantly, "Are you mad?"

Percy sat up and ran a hand through his hair. Annabeth sat up as well so she could see his expression. It seemed to just be one of complete shock. She figured that it would turn to anger soon, so she was wary.

Instead of answering her question, Percy just asked, "I'm a dad?"

Annabeth nodded. Percy sighed and said, "I don't know if I'm mad. I guess I'm upset that you didn't tell me, but better late than never right?"

Annabeth nodded again. She didn't quite believe him when he said he wasn't mad.

Percy then asked, "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

For some reason that one question made Annabeth defensive. She raised her voice slightly as she said, "Well excuse me! You were participating in the most dangerous operation since WWII where they allowed no contact to the participants! I couldn't get word to you when I confirmed the pregnancy, when I found out the gender or when I went into labor! You were gone and I had no one!"

Percy still didn't get mad. This surprised Annabeth, but she was too pissed at him for making her the bad guy. Or at least that's what Annabeth felt he was doing. He said in a placid voice, "I'm sorry. That wasn't supposed to sound accusatory. I know that my timing was horrible. I know that the military didn't allow any communication between the officers and the outside world. We only had communication face-to-face with others that were involved in the operation. I'm sorry you didn't have anyone. Did you at least have friends with you when all this happened?"

"Yes I had friends with me! But that is nothing when my husband is absent!"

"I know," Percy said. "I know friends don't make up for my not being there as your husband or the baby's father. I know my job takes me away with certain conditions all the time. If I could've, I would have pulled out once I found out. But I couldn't communicate with you so I had no way of knowing. I'm sorry. I didn't mean for that to happen. I didn't mean for this mission to take off right when I finished that operation."

Annabeth lapsed into silence. She knew that Percy meant what he said and had no control over where the military sends him. The only ounce of control over that operation that Percy had was an option to deny participating in it, but the offer was only given once and it was given about two months before Annabeth found out about her pregnancy. She knew there was no use blaming Percy for what he couldn't control. Annabeth just wanted to get rid of all the frustration that had been building up since Percy left and she found out she was carrying a child.

Annabeth was actually grateful that Percy wasn't angry with her for hiding something as big as a child. Of course, later on, Percy might let the news sink in more and get heated, but she hoped that she would be able to calm him down when it happens. Hopefully it would not be a huge rage. Granted he probably had somewhat of a right to be slightly upset. But Annabeth didn't think he had that much room to say that because everything that she had said to him was true. She couldn't contact him to tell him anything. She could have told him when he had first calmed down from the initial shock of her being a stowaway and all. They both had a small reason to be upset, but the majority of the things that they might get angry about were completely out of their control.

Percy broke her out of her thought train by wrapping his arms around her. He kissed her temple and tucked her head underneath his. He said quietly, "We're together now. When we get back, we'll have another member to our family to be with. Is Athena gonna incinerate me when we get back?"

Annabeth gave a little laugh and said, "I don't think so."

"Good. I love you."

"I love you too."

They sat in silence before Percy's phone began ringing. He looked over at it on the nightstand. The caller ID said 'Valdez' so Annabeth figured that meant Leo. She looked up at Percy who seemed to be glaring at the phone. She giggled and Percy looked down at her in mild surprise with a questioning face.

"What?"

Percy just shook his head with a small grin on his face. She looked up again and asked, "Are you going to answer your phone?"

Percy sighed and reached for it in turn squishing Annabeth between the bed and him. He grabbed it and answered it with an annoyed, "Hello?"

He put it on speakerphone as Leo said, "breakfast. So what are you thinking on your end?"

Percy thought then said looking at Annabeth, "I think we should go ahead and eat breakfast downstairs in that buffet area again. Might as well. Like we said, people would get suspicious if we never came down until checkout. There's probably people working here involved with what's his name."

Leo responded, "The guy's name was Jim according to the other guys, but I still think we should have gone with something else."

"Yeah whatever, Leo. Listen are the other guys in your room?" Percy asked.

"Yep. Nico's still asleep though."

"Well, nothing we can do about that. It is his room too. Me and Annabeth will be over in a bit." Percy said with a chuckle.

"Alright." Leo sighed on the other end of the phone.

"Tell the rest of the guys the plan for breakfast and don't wake Nico up." Percy ordered.

"Got it. See you two in a bit," Leo said then hung up.

Percy looked down at Annabeth again and said, "You're gonna have to change."

Annabeth and Percy both chuckled and Annabeth got up and changed on the spot right by the bed. When she turned around Percy's eyes were wide and he wasn't looking at her face. She walked over and put a finger beneath his chin and lightly lifted his head.

"Be careful where you look." As she turned to walk away, Percy wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her in front of him.

"I'm being very careful." He said. She gave him a kiss on the lips and walked over to put her shoes on. He got off the bed and put his own shoes on and opened the door for Annabeth, following her out. He rang the doorbell to Leo and Nico's room.

Leo answered the door and welcomed them in. He said to Percy, "I did what you said to do. I told them what you suggested for breakfast and I didn't wake Nico up. That part wasn't hard though. He's a really deep sleeper. I just noticed that."

"Only certain things can wake him up." Percy agreed, nodding. He took out his phone and connected it to Nico's with a weird connector that connected the headphone jacks instead of power jacks. Percy scrolled through his own music and choose a dubstep one by Skrillex. Why he had Skrillex music on his phone, Annabeth had no clue. Except when it started playing at full volume, the music wasn't playing out loud. Annabeth could hear it faintly, but it wasn't coming from the speakers of Percy or Nico's phone.

Nico shot up a second after Percy had hit the play icon on his phone. He looked around to see all the men laughing and Annabeth just looking around confused. He kept fiddling with buttons on his watch making the men laugh harder. Annabeth just looked on trying to figure out what was going on. She figured it would be explained later, but she wanted to at least have some idea.

Finally Nico seemed to calm down. He wasn't pressing buttons frantically on his watch. He now had a holographic display projected from his watch it looked like. He went to a speaker icon quickly and a volume display came up. A simple mixer and a master volume. He completely muted it. Annabeth wondered what was playing the music. She thought it was some sort of earbud, but if it was, Nico should have just been able to take them out. Annabeth couldn't see any earbuds in his ears anyway, so she dismissed the thought.

When Nico had the volume muted, Annabeth could no longer faintly hear music. Nico looked at each of the men who had slowly calmed down from their laughing fits. Nico looked at them in turn then finally settled on glaring at Travis. Travis put his hands up in a surrendering gesture except he was still laughing slightly, so Nico was only infuriated. He tried to give Travis the death glare, but Travis wasn't focused enough to register it.

Percy disconnected his phone from Nico's and Nico turned on him. "It was you!"

Percy nodded, still chuckling. When the phones were disconnected and the connector placed back in Percy's pocket, his phone was blaring _Bangarang_. Percy stopped the song and pocketed his phone as well.

When Leo could speak again without breaking down and laughing, he asked, "Hey Percy? Why do you have Skrillex on your phone?"

Percy shrugged. "I don't know. Nico likes _Bun Dum_ and I just got into some of their music. I've got maybe eight songs by them on my phone."

The men all chuckled and Frank said, "You always were and always will be an any type of music guy."

The men chuckled again and Percy raised an eyebrow and said, "I ask you, what is wrong with that?"

"Nothing's wrong with it. We're just commenting on how you don't really change in certain aspects." Nico said. "But was it really necessary to turn the volume all the way up on your phone? You know my volume is always full volume on my wire."

"Yeah I know. That's why I turned my phone's volume all the way up. It was dubstep calling for you to get your butt out of bed, get dressed, and start the day." Percy said.

Nico sighed, threw off the covers and walked to the bathroom in his boxers with his small bag. Annabeth covered her eyes when Nico threw the covers off. She didn't even check if he was wearing anything appropriate. She didn't trust him to.

When Annabeth heard the bathroom door close, she lowered her hands from her eyes to see all the men watching her with amused looks. Travis spoke first saying, "You know he wasn't nude right?"

"I wouldn't know because I covered my eyes before I saw what he was wearing." Annabeth said slightly defensively. Percy wrapped his arms around Annabeth's waist from behind. Annabeth couldn't see what his expression was because he was behind her, but from the reactions of the other men, she guessed his expression made them drop it. The men turned around and sat around in various places in the room.

Percy sat down on the bed Nico was sleeping on a minute ago, pulling Annabeth onto his lap. They all sat in silence which was impressive considering they were all ADHD except Frank. It also happened to be that Travis, Leo, and Percy's case of ADHD usually affected them more than other demigods because they had restless personalities even without it. But they managed to sit somewhat still and in silence for the ten minutes it took Nico to shower, brush his teeth and put clothes on.

When Nico came back out into the main room, he looked around with a strange look on his face. Then he said, "Who died?"

That was all it took for the other men to explode. They had been sitting in silence too long for their liking. They all started talking at once making it impossible to understand what any of them were saying. Nico just stood surveying the room with the five men talking over each other so no one could tell what they were saying and who was saying what. Nico's look conveyed some sort of amusement at the scene he was watching.

After attempting to figure out what any one of the men was saying, Annabeth gave up and tried to tell them to be quiet. That didn't work very well, so she turned around to Percy who was practically shouting at the others.

Annabeth said, "Percy?"

He stopped shouting at the rest of the guys and looked at Annabeth giving her his undivided attention. "Yes?"

"Would you mind telling everyone to shut up so we can go eat breakfast?" Annabeth asked sweetly.

Percy grinned and nodded. He shouted, "Guys! Shut it! No one cares! Nico get some shoes on. We're going down to breakfast. From Annabeth."

All the guys laughed at the last part and stood from wherever they had been sitting. Nico went over to his other suitcase, grabbed a pair of socks, and slipped them on. Then he ran over to his shoes at the foot of the bed Percy was sitting on. He pulled the shoes on and gave a thumbs up to the others in the room. Percy chuckled and finally stood, bringing Annabeth up with him. They all headed out the door and down the hall to breakfast. Theoretically this should make the spies less suspicious right? Nope.

**A/N: Hope you enjoyed and expect less consistent updates for awhile.**


	9. Chapter 9

When they got to the breakfast area, Travis tried to check them in so they could eat. This was the routine they had worked out. When he said the room numbers to the host, the host just shook his head. He even looked over the sheets of paper he had in front of him three times, but to no avail.

Travis furrowed his eyebrows. "What's the problem?" Travis asked.

The host answered in accented English, "Those rooms are unoccupied according to this sheet."

"What?"

"I'm sorry, sir. Are you sure you have not checked out?" the host apologized.

"Yes I'm sure!" Travis responded heatedly. "We aren't leaving until tomorrow morning! That should be on your records considering that's how many nights I checked the rooms out for."

"I will get someone to check on that for you, sir." the host replied confusedly. It seemed like he only understood certain parts of Travis's little rant. The host continued, "You and your party must wait off to the side until we get all this sorted out."

Travis looked at Percy who was standing off to the side listening to the conversation. Annabeth was unaware that he was shielding her from sight. Percy figured that if the host was part of whatever group of people they were currently against, he shouldn't reveal that they had an extra member that the opposing people didn't know about. After all, when 'Jim' came to the door, Percy had hidden Annabeth in the shower. They shouldn't know about _A2_'s advantage of an field strategist.

When Percy noticed Travis looking at him questioningly, he nodded slightly and walked off to the side. He waited for the rest of the group to follow. They all seemed to have gotten the unspoken memo to keep Annabeth out of sight subtly until they were in their room or the breakfast area, whichever came first.

Nico was the first one to come over to Percy. He raised an inquiring eyebrow, but Percy just shook his head and nodded to the other men signaling to wait until they were all present.

When they were all huddled around Percy he explained his reasoning, "Look, if we just comply while acting confused and frustrated without completely losing our temper, they might think there is some sort of mistake. Hopefully we can talk this out and just get our breakfast quickly."

"Is Travis the only one that will talk since he's the only one that can speak English apparently?" Frank asked.

"No." Percy answered. "Since we don't have our heritage look or whatever right now, it shouldn't be necessary. We shouldn't match the descriptions that Jim would've given. And Travis isn't wearing the same outfit and all Jim saw was his back. I can jump in speaking Mandarin if I need to."

"Then why are we still keeping Annabeth out of the employees' view." Travis questioned.

"We would have an extra person if we didn't. We didn't change rooms. Just appearance. I want to be careful, but not so much that it becomes obvious. Don't make it look like you're hiding someone. Be causal. I know we can all act, guys." Percy said in a commanding voice.

The men all nodded while Annabeth just stood with a thoughtful face on. As the host came back to the podium, the group moved forward again. They kept Annabeth carefully out of sight.

The host said, "I requested someone of higher rank come to speak with you."

As he finished speaking, another man in a suit came from a side door that led to some sort of staff area. The host stayed at his post at the podium, but turned his body so he could seem like he was standing off to the side. The man that had just come out was taller than the host. Looked maybe 5' 11" so fairly tall. He didn't have to crane his neck to speak with Travis's 6' 1" figure. He might've had to if Percy had to interfere and speak as Percy stood at 6' 3" standing up straight.

The man in the suit came over to stand near the podium, looked over the visible members of their group, and turned to Travis as he was standing at the front. He said, "I am the general manager of the Lido Hotel. You may call me Cheng. What is your concern?"

Travis nodded in understanding then responded calmly, "Your breakfast area host says that we are not permitted to have breakfast because his papers say that we have checked out when we haven't."

Cheng raised his eyebrows. He stepped closer to the podium to look at the papers that the host was shuffling through earlier. He looked them over carefully then looked back up at the group and said, "I don't know why my host said that. You aren't scheduled to be checking out until tomorrow. Please seat yourselves in the breakfast area."

Cheng spread his arm to the side in a guiding gesture to the breakfast buffet and seating area. Travis thanked him and the group went to find a table. When they had all gotten their food, they sat down and immediately huddled together.

Nico asked, "Do you think he's involved?"

"Doubt it." Percy responded.

"Then why would they involve the breakfast host, knowing he would go to the general manager when a problem was pointed out?" Travis countered.

"I don't know. Maybe to throw us off? Whatever the reason, I'm positive Cheng is not involved in stopping us. At least not yet." Percy thought about something for a second then continued, "Maybe they were expecting the general manager to ask the host about it instead of just checking the papers."

"Why didn't they just change the papers if they have inside people?" Frank asked.

"I'd guess that they don't have people of high enough rank to access all the papers that would be needed to change not even including on the computer. They would also have to change the ones that we have in our possession. There is no way they would have gotten to those, so I assume they didn't want to risk it." Percy said. He himself was not completely sure of his explanations, but they made enough sense to be possible at least.

"Do you think they'll try to get the general manager involved now that they know how he would respond?" Travis asked.

"No. That would be pointless. I'm sure they know that we're leaving tomorrow. Maybe they can't access all the papers and records, but they must have access to at least one set that shows when we arrived and when we're leaving." Percy said. His eyebrows were furrowed in concentration. He was almost glaring at his empty plate. "Let's continue talking about this before our conversation with 'Jim' but only once we're back in one of the rooms. We'll do a bug scan as well." Percy said, then without a word stood up and went back to the buffet.

* * *

Once back in Percy and Annabeth's room, Frank pulled out a thin pad. He placed it on the desk and pressed a button. Almost instantly, a hologram image popped up. It was almost the exact same as the computer Annabeth had seen before when 'Jim' came. It was all hologram though. The keyboard was completely a hologram image shown on the padded part. A light shined up from the back of the pad that was projecting the display. The display currently had a huge picture of Percy and Annabeth with their dog by their feet.

The dog was not Mrs. O' Leary, but a regular dog that they had rescued off the streets when it was a puppy. It was a male black lab. He was about six months old when they found him. They had taken him to the vet to get his shots taken care of. They had also gotten him spade. They had named him Leroy by Percy's request. They had rescued him about a year and a half before Percy had been called out on Leo's mission. Percy had trained him to be a great guard and hunting dog. He obeyed Percy 100% of the time and if Annabeth had his food and Percy was absent he would listen to her very reluctantly. That fact annoyed Annabeth to no end and made Percy overjoyed when she first told him. Leroy knew Percy was his master. Percy was considering training Leroy to be a military dog when he got older, but Annabeth talked him out of it.

Percy went over to the hologram computer and typed in his password. He then turned to Annabeth, who had been gazing longingly at Percy's account picture. He walked over to where Annabeth was standing by the unused bed and wrapped an arm around her waist. He asked quietly, "Where's Leroy?"

Annabeth turned her head to face Percy and answered, "He's with Athena along with Perseus Ray Jackson Jr."

Percy nodded, not fully comprehending all that Annabeth just said as he responded, "Are you sure Athena won't murder my puppy?"

Annabeth nodded but before she could reply Percy jumped in excitedly with, "Wait that's his name?"

Annabeth smiled and said, "Yes. I just thought about it and remembered that I never told you I named him after you."

"Why did you name him after me?" Percy wondered aloud.

"Because, Seaweed Brain, he looks like an exact replica of you minus the curliness of his hair. Plus I made sure to have his hair kept regulation style." Annabeth said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Percy grinned and asked, "Roman regulation?"

Annabeth nodded with her a smile of her own. Leo turned to look at them and when he saw what he did he just turned around again and went to the hologram computer. Percy was nuzzling Annabeth's neck, placing a kiss here and there. She wasn't exactly stopping him, but she didn't think the proper time for something like that would be right after breakfast when they were supposed to be working.

Annabeth gently shoved Percy away saying, "We've got work to do."

Percy sighed and nodded going over to his hologram computer. When Leo noticed Percy coming over to help with his standard work expression, he turned to look at Annabeth and raised his eyebrows in a questioning manner. Annabeth wasn't sure what Leo was wondering, so she gestured with her head for Leo to follow her away from the other men.

When Leo complied, she looked back to Percy who had been watching the interaction with Leo. She quickly went over to Percy and said quietly, "I'll explain later. I promise. Don't worry."

Percy gave a weak nod and she kissed his forehead which was easier than his cheek since he was sitting in the desk chair. Annabeth went back over to Leo and asked, "What?"

"I think you know." Leo responded in a neutral voice. It wasn't hostile or commanding or accusatory, but it wasn't sad or disappointed or really anything. It held no emotion that Annabeth could detect. However, no matter how hard Annabeth thought, she couldn't figure out why Leo seemed to be questioning her.

"I actually don't. Could you just explain?" Annabeth admitted.

"Fine. Have you told Percy about your kid you had with him?" Leo asked bluntly.

Annabeth glanced at her watch then said, "I thought the deadline was three."

"It is. I am just giving a friendly reminder."

Annabeth raised her eyebrows but replied, "Well, I actually did tell him. I explained everything."

Leo looked skeptical. "So if I go up to Percy right now and ask him who the kid was that Athena had when we landed, he would say it's his kid?"

Annabeth nodded and said, "Yes. But please don't. I'm pretty sure he doesn't want others to know until he has actually met his child."

"Then how am I supposed to know that you aren't lying?" Leo questioned.

Annabeth didn't understand why it mattered to Leo so much that Percy knew about his child before they got back to the states. She asked, "Why do you care so much that Percy knows about him?"

Leo sighed and Annabeth could almost feel the anger and frustration drain out of him. He said, "Percy and I have been tight practically since we first got over my initial screw up." Annabeth nodded remembering how angry Percy had been at Leo for firing the ballistae at New Rome. "I guess all the members of the business care about each others a lot, but the higher ranking ones especially."

Annabeth was about to respond when Percy announced in a loud voice, "These walls and door are fully soundproof and all bugs have been deactivated and the same goes for our other two rooms!"

All the men offered a short round of applause as Percy continued, "I set the bugs to respond to my wire alone."

"Nice." Nico complemented.

Percy nodded.

"Should I call the guy now?" Travis asked.

The men looked at each other while Percy raised an eyebrow at Annabeth. Annabeth just shrugged. She truly was not sure what would be the best action at that point. Percy held her gaze for another second before turning away to the rest of the men.

Finally Percy said, "I think we might as well figure out who we are dealing with."

Nico sighed and grabbed Travis's phone off the desk along with the paper that had the number they were supposed to call. Travis took both from Nico and dialed the number into his phone.

The group waited in silence as muffled ringing could be heard from the phone. They all seemed to tense every time another ring would sound. It took five and a half rings for a man to pick up the phone on the other end.

Travis heard "Hello, Daniel speaking." He quickly put the phone on speaker and set it on the desk again, responding, "Yes! I was instructed to call this number."

There was silence on the other end. While there was silence, Percy wrote a note on the complementary notepad. It said _Give him your real name. I'm sure they already know, but make up names for the rest of us that relate to the heritage he thought we had when we changed our looks._ Or at least, that was what it was probably supposed to say. It was slightly more jumbled when Annabeth read it. But it must have been good enough for Travis to figure out because when he read it he nodded in understanding.

Then Daniel spoke again. He said, "Ah. Are you the English speaking man from the Lido Hotel?"

"That I am. I can also speak a few other languages." Travis answered.

"Wonderful! Were you passed out when I visited?" Daniel asked sounding relieved.

"Ah, yes I was." Travis said putting on an embarrassed front. Daniel must have fallen for it because he chuckled good naturedly.

"Don't worry, my friend. I think all your friends were a little tipsy as well. Besides I think all of us including me know what it's like to be hitting the happy juice until we're hammered."

"That's probably right. I mean I know my friends have all passed out from liquor before. It's just normally not at a hotel."

"Now tell me, are all your friends from different countries?" Daniel asked. His tone had changed to one that sounded more business-like.

Travis noticed the change in tone as well, but he didn't change his own tone from the light and carefree one he had been using. He answered, "They were born in different countries, but we all met when studying abroad in Italy. Well, Mario wasn't exactly _abroad_ but you get my gist."

Nico ran to the corner behind the desk shaking with silent laughs. The other men weren't much better. Travis's face burned with embarrassment. Annabeth wasn't sure what they all thought was so funny but she couldn't ask as that might give away the extra person.

Daniel asked, "Who's Mario?"

"He's the Italian in our group." That sentence set the men off again. Leo and Nico ran to the bathroom and shut the soundproof door. Annabeth assumed they couldn't be silent much longer even though she still failed to see what was so incredibly hilarious. Frank had retreated to the corner Nico was previously in and faced the wall while shaking with silent laughter. His hands seemed like they wanted to clap but they never met each other, so they were just flapping around in the air in front of him. Percy had stayed where he was, but even he was dying of laughter in his spot. Annabeth just stood where she was, observing the other men's actions. It was insane if you asked her, but it wasn't like she could do anything about it, so she let it go for the time being.

The conversation continued between Daniel and a red-faced Travis. Travis and Percy were the only ones paying any attention to it and Percy was doing a half ass job of it too. Annabeth would be listening if she wasn't being constantly distracted by the other men attempting to come back to the desk, but one would go into another fit of laughter before they could compose themselves completely, setting the rest off again.

Travis finally finished his conversation with Daniel and turned to the other men who had finally come out of the various places they were hiding to suppress their laughter that was started from two simple sentences. Annabeth thought they were laughing at some teasing that might have been underlying in the sentences that Travis said about 'Mario' (aka: Nico). She didn't know what was so funny about "Mario wasn't exactly abroad, but you get my gist" or "he's the Italian in our group". They were coverups. They were sensible in Annabeth's eyes. If it was some sort of teasing, Nico probably wouldn't be laughing harder than any of the others.

She decided to ask them when they composed themselves. Travis was surveying the other men with a sheepish expression. That made them all crack up again. Frank had finally composed himself while Percy was letting all his suppressed laughter come out. Annabeth decided she had had enough.

She brought Percy's head down and whispered, "If you stop laughing now and get down to business here, it will give up more alone time later."

Percy sobered up. He stood up straight and announced, "Alright! That's enough. It was funny, but now it's time to get to work! What did we all miss Travis?"

"I invited him to come over again."

* * *

**A/N: As probably noticed, updates have slowed down. This is due to hectic summers and all that. I'm doing the best I can. Thanks for the reviews, favorites, follows & PMs**


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